If you’ve never heard of the Electric Prunes, the Seeds, the Remains, the 13^th Floor Elevators, the Count Five, Blues Magoos, the Amboy Dukes, the Shadows of Knight, the Standells, the Leaves or the Strangeloves, this article is required reading. They are the forefathers of psychedelic rock – the American bands that put fuzz tone on the map and, in some cases, even the charts and inspired the garage rock renaissance of the ’80s that still continues at the grungy rock club level today.

Music history in all genres has seen great work achieved through amazing partnerships. Rock and roll is no exception. In the past 50 years, the songwriting partnerships below have yielded a trove of rock classics. Sometimes two heads are, indeed, better than one.

Joe Bonamassa could serve as a great example for all aspiring players. Opening for B.B. King at the ripe age of eight, Bonamassa has since approached his career with workmanlike steadiness, touring relentlessly and often cutting multiple albums in a single year. His latest, An Acoustic Evening at the Vienna Opera House, will be followed by a new studio album slated for release later this year. Below, we present highlights from several recent interviews.

99% of electric players use picks, of course. But do you own a capo?

Nobody does rock quite like Jack White. The Detroit-bred singer and guitarist got the world’s attention with the White Stripes, the garage rock, punk-blues duo featuring his “sister,” er, ex-wife of sorts Meg White, and his career has grown exponentially ever since.

In their heyday, Manowar’s slogan was “death to false metal!” But if that’s true, Manowar should die and even Metallica need to retire. Because there’s only one real metal band right now, and that’s Compressorhead.

Tone is the Holy Grail for most dedicated guitarists. It’s something we’re willing to seek and tweak our entire playing lives. And each of us has a different perspective on tone, which explains the proliferation of guitars, pickups and, of course, amplifiers available.

In the annals of Fleetwood Mac’s guitar history, Peter Green gets nearly all the black — in part because of his key role in making the Gibson Les Paul Sunburst an integral part of rock and blues history. But the Mac also featured another great Les Paul player who took lead of the band and helped the group reach its zenith of popularity: Lindsey Buckingham.

Next year marks the 120th anniversary of Gibson, one of the most storied and successful companies in the history of American enterprise. But despite Gibson being a long-time household name for music enthusiasts all over the world, it has not always been smooth-sailing for the iconic company.

Whereas once we might have absorbed an album on a beanbag chair in a garage, surrounded by band posters and bathed in the glow of a lava lamp (at least that's how I like to imagine I'd consume music if I was a teenager in the ‘60s or ‘70s).